This was by far the biggest and most incredible week at TinkerTry so far, with a lot of comments, and a flood of email from all over the planet. More email than I can possibly reply to, actually.

So, I politely request site visitors consider using a new site feature I'm announcing today, enabled just for you! Below each post, you'll now find the new, improved, easier-to-use Commenting System. You can use any of the many services to login conveniently if you'd like, or you can just post anonoymously, see your options illustrated here:

That's right! To strongly encourage adoption of using the comments system, I've kept it wide open, making it actually easier to use than sending an email. The only moderating I do is for comments that include URLs. No problem, I nearly always handle those within hours, right from my phone, and haven't had to reject even a single one yet! And no spammers to date, thanks to Akismet, and very polite, appreciative visitors.

Personally, I like to use a Disqus account to login once, because I can use it on many big-name sites and stay signed in all week, and centrally manage my posts. But that's just me, use whichever option you like best!

Although it's unfortunate I'm unable to stay on top of email, I do feel it's probably more valuable for me to spend more time on hands-on technical projects anyway. Then creating quality posts about those projects. Projects that interest a lot of folks.

I worry about the time it takes to create one-off emails to individuals via email, sometimes about products or projects I've never even tried myself, so I cannot add much value.

Think of it this way. If you read an article, then publicly post your ideas or similar projects in some comments after that article, you might very well find that another site visitor, more familiar with that product or project than I, is be able to provide far better advice than I.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always grateful for feedback and any comments, good and bad, it's how I learn. I'm just hoping we can see even more use of the comments system going forward, so all of TinkerTry's valued site visitors can benefit!

After all, what sites do you trust? Think about when you search the web for some technical solution. Do you trust the sites with 0 comments, or the ones with many folks saying things like "thank you" and "it worked"?

In case you didn't notice the disclosure a few weeks back, I want you to be aware that this site is now using fewer banner ads, for now, as an experiment. I discovered that Skimlinks was a better match for TinkerTry's current needs, given this site was already filled with Newegg.com and Amazon.com links. In other words, no additional work for this busy blogger! Basically, Skimlinks does what it says, leveraging the informal relationships I've already forged with the etailers, where TinkerTry actually gets a small portion of any sales made that came directly from clicking a TinkerTry link, with no additional cost or effort from you, and no difference in your shopping experience, once you land at that non-TinkerTry site.

So, if you decide to buy something you've read about on TinkerTry, feeling it's likely to also meet your unique needs, all I ask to show your TinkerTry support is that when it comes time to purchase, please consider using one of the links, perhaps on vZilla for example, so the underlying Skimlinks engine can automatically record that standard, public link I posted was used. Eventually TinkerTry gets a small percentage of that sale, anonymously. This is the least intrusive, most practical way I could find by far, but if you feel otherwise, please let us know, by commenting below!

Thank you again for your obvious support. As of December 7 2011, I see the number of repeat visitors and page views to TinkerTry continuing to rise. I've now passed 22,800 Unique Visitors since launch (just 6 months ago), and passed 100,000 page views! Another 13,000 at the TinkerTry YouTube Channel! All very good signs, that sure keep me motivated!

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